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NARS NEWS The Northwest Amateur Radio Society an ARRL Special Services Club #2120

November 2015

Important Dates Monthly club meeting: Third Friday of each month, 7:30 pm. Cypress Creek Christian Community Ctr. 6823 Cypresswood Drive Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, November 24, 7:30 pm. Ponderosa Fire Station 17061 Rolling Creek Drive VE License Exam: Saturday, November 21, at 10:15 am. Lone Star College Tomball Library located at the south entrance to the College. Official address is: 30555 St. Hwy 249. Lunch Break—North Nov 11, Spring Creek BBQ Nov 18, Pei Wei Nov 25, Panera Bread Dec 2, Jason’s Deli Dec 9, Baker Street Pub Dec 16, Sweet Tomatoes .Lunch Break—Medical Center Nov 11, Pronto Cucinino Nov 18, Jason’s Deli Nov 25, Buffalo Grille Dec 2, Southwell’s Hamburger Grille Dec 9, Marco’s Mexican Bar & Grille Dec 16, Silver Palace Chinese Buffet Tail Dragger’s Lunch Bunch - Mondays, 11 am. Aviator’s Grill, Hooks Aerodrome Notice: NARS membership dues are $20 per year, renewable on anniver-sary date.

Breakfast at Denny’s

Saturdays, 7 a.m. 6504 FM 2920, Spring, TX Just a few blocks west of

Kuykendahl at the intersection of TC Jester & FM 2920

Get on Board…. NARS needs your participation.

Volunteer as a Board Member and be part of the decision making!

Three cheers for our new future Board members!!

November 20th

Annual election for the NARS

Board of Directors

Nominations will be taken from the floor for the following

positions: Vice President and Director at Large. Please consider

volunteering for one of these positions. No experience required!

Keith Dutson will present a short recap of the 2015 Texas QSO

Party

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4721 Watonga Blvd.

Houston, TX 77092 www.ofarc.org

V.E. Exams every 4th Saturday

of the month at 9:30 a.m.

Contact: John Westerlage

N5DWI@oafrc.org for further

Annual K5ZTY Show-n-Tell scheduled

for December 18th meeting!

The K5ZTY Show-n-Tell night will once again be held at

our December meeting. Any projects, kits, or mods you’ve

made to your station over the past year, we’d like to hear

about it. Just one month to get your bragging rights in order.

Don’t wait until the last minute….

Volunteers needed for this years Salvation Army Bell Ringers event! Each year Narsians get together for one Saturday to man the kettles

for the Salvation Army at the Wal-Mart located at the corner of US

249 and Spring Cypress Road. This year NARS members will be

ringing the bells on December 5th. Two volunteers are needed for

each one hour shift, starting at 10 a.m.

Jerry Whiting KB5VGD, is coordinator for this worthy event and

is now accepting names of those wanting to devote a little time for

those in need. Quite a few have volunteered to date but there are

still a few 1 hour shifts open. Jerry can be reached at his email

address: g_whiting@sbcglobal.net

Hey! Get off your duff and do something nice. The “Great Pro-

vider” may decide to give you a break some day….

Election of NARS 2016 Officers! The election of NARS 2016 officers takes place at the November

meeting. Keith Dutson , currently Vice President will be the in-

coming President for 2016.

The club needs to elect a new Vice President and a Director or

two to fill vacancies. Please consider taking one of these posi-

tions. NARS needs new ideas to insure its future. All it takes is

to attend board meetings each month and assist in voicing your

ideas on how to better the operation of the Northwest Amateur

Radio Society. You can help make a difference!

Contact Brad Nelson at wd5gni@swbell.net or just come to the

general meeting on November 20th. We’ll do the rest…..

President’s Column

F inally, some cooler weather along with a “little” rain. I look

forward to the cooler weather and think that temperatures in

the 70’s are much better suited for antenna work than tempera-

tures in the 90’s. I am thinking of adding a dipole or two to my

outdoor antenna collection. A 30 meter will be first because I

have never tried working that band before. My beam is a 10-15

20 four element triband beam and I use a 40/80 meter trapped

dipole for the other bands I work. The 30 meter antenna will fit

on my lot and not be very visible. My subdivision has minimal

antenna restrictions and only says that antennas shall be placed

behind the building line. This has not caused me much of a prob-

lem, but then my small lot size would not be very conducive for

erection of a larger antenna tower than the one that I already

have. A taller antenna would be better for DX.

Some hams have tight restrictions, so tight in fact that their

hobby on HF is essentially prohibited. There is legislation cur-

rently working its way through Congress that would provide

some relief for these situations asking for reasonable accommo-

dations for amateur radio antennas. This legislation is commonly

known as The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015, or as H.R.

1301 in the US House of Representatives and S. 1685 in the US

Senate. The bill would direct the FCC to extend its rules relating

to reasonable accommodation of Amateur Service communica-

tions to private land use restrictions.

There is an ARRL video on YouTube called “Clarity on Parity”

or “The Amateur Radio Parity Act: Separating Fact from Fic-

tion”. The video is only a few minutes long. You can view it at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMY-5U1cJ6E . Ham radio

operators are only a small percentage of the U.S population. If

we want to be heard we need to speak up. Write letters to your

Congressman and Representative supporting this legislation.

Your legislators are far more likely to be swayed by letters than

by email or texts. Find out who represents you in Congress and

write to them. You may be the one who makes a difference.

Brad Nelson – WD5GNI

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IARU Administrative Council Stresses Impor-

tance of Antenna Systems for Amateur Radio

T he International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Administrative

Council (AC) has adopted a resolution calling on IARU member

societies to encourage governments to recognize the importance of

the Amateur Radio Service and of Amateur radio antennas. The AC

held its 38th meeting on October 9 and 10 in Bali, Indonesia, in con-

junction with the IARU Region 3 Conference there.

The antenna resolution also called on member societies "to advocate

for planning and development regulations that properly recognize the

importance of an Amateur Radio antenna and do not place undue

restrictions on the erection of antennas." It also urged member socie-

ties to discourage the imposition of any fees related to ham antennas,

"particularly in view of the non-pecuniary nature of Amateur Radio

and its popularity in the student and senior communities."

The AC completed its preparations

to represent Amateur Radio at

World Radio communication Con-

ference 2015 (WRC-15), which

will take place during November

in Geneva. The AC reviewed

IARU positions and strategies for

each WRC-15 agenda item that

may affect ham radio. These in-

cluded proposals for a secondary

amateur allocation near 5.3 MHz.

The Council also looked ahead to

agenda items for the next WRC,

which is anticipated for 2019.

These would include an amateur

allocation at 50 MHz in Region 1

(Europe and Africa) and "global harmonization" of the 1800-2000

kHz allocation.

"It is anticipated that a significant effort by IARU will be needed in

preparation for WRC-19 to defend the amateur allocations between

137 and 960 MHz, in light of the pressure for spectrum for small, non

-amateur satellites," the AC said in a statement. "Close coordination

of regional efforts will be required."

In a departure from its practice of recent years, the Council adopted a

continuing theme for World Amateur Radio Day each April --

"Celebrating Amateur Radio's Contribution to Society." The Council

could adopt a special theme in any given year, if appropriate.

In other actions, the IARU Administrative Council:

Discussed the environmental impact and burden on the interna-

tional QSL Bureau system of unsolicited and unwanted QSL

cards and plans to revisit the issue at a future meeting.

Will draft possible revisions to the IARU Constitution and By-

laws to introduce “some degree of flexibility in dealing with

‘second societies.’”

The IARU Administrative Council will hold a “virtual meeting” in

early 2016. The next in-person meeting will take place in Chile in

October 2016, in conjunction with the IARU Region 2 Conference.

Heathkit on its way back!

H eathkit announcing its rising from the ashes. The following is an

announcement from the President of the new Heathkit.

“It’s been a while since we wrote to our Heath Insiders. We promised

not to clutter your email inbox until we had something to say. Here’s

a quick summary of what we’ve quietly been doing at Heathkit during

the past year: We assembled a terrific team of very talented, hard-

working, inventive people. We acquired another company and merged

its management, products, assets, and operations gracefully into

Heath Company. We ensured we own every last bit of Heathkit intel-

lectual property, to bring you all the manuals, books, vintage designs,

and classic logos you love, unencumbered and in perpetuity. We built

a company division and acquired a line of vintage add-on designs to

sustain the vintage products so important to many Insiders. We devel-

oped and integrated our eBay site, so you can buy or bid on auctioned

items. We authored and published a helpful Android software app on

Heathkit’s GooglePlay site, with more apps to come.

That’s a lot, but there’s more. We’ve designed and developed a wide

range of entirely new kit products. We authored the manuals for these

kits, complete with the beautiful line art you rely on, preserving and

respecting our iconic historic Heathkit style. We developed many new

inventions and filed patents on them. We relocated Heathkit, and set

up a factory, and a warehouse, and offices, in Santa Cruz, California,

near Silicon Valley. We built the back office infrastructure, vendor

and supply chain relationships, systems, procedures, operations meth-

ods, and well-thought-out corporate structure that a manufacturing

company needs to support its customers, to allow us to scale instantly

the day we resume major kit sales. All this effort enables us to intro-

duce a fleet of new kits and helps ensure Heathkit can grow, prosper,

and continue to bring you great new products for a very long

time.

We’ll have many product announcements coming, but today I want to

tell you about our flagship kit. It’s a simple kit—by intent. We feel an

enormous responsibility to respect and maintain the incredible legacy

of Heathkit. To us this means, bringing you kits you can build your-

self, using our historic renowned Heathkit you-can-do-it “We won’t

let you fail”™ approach, yielding working useful appliances so

beautiful you’ll be proud to display and use them daily. It also

means creating an educational experience that teaches you how

they work, and how you can modify or repair what you own.

Further, we feel a very strong commitment to making this experience

available to everyone, from 8 to 88 years old. That’s an especially

high hurdle. And we’ve done it. The result is the Explorer Jr.™ It’s a

simple, beautiful professional-looking little radio. It’s a historic de-

sign, made new. It comes in several different colors. You build it

yourself. Take it anywhere. When you build it and as use it, you’ll

learn to fall in love with radio, for the first time—or all over

again. And it’s just the first in a series.

As a Heath Insider, you are special to us. In a few days, we’ll connect

www.heathkit.com to our new website where our new products are

listed. But you stayed with us through this process. And we want to

thank you. So we are giving you, as an Insider, personal advance

notice of the new products and new website through this email, before

we tell the general public. We want you to know we appreciate your

enthusiasm and respect for the Heathkit name and history.

Sincerely, Andy (President) and the team at Heathkit”

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How GPS Receivers Work

O ur ancestors had to go to pretty extreme measures to

keep from getting lost. They erected monumental land-

marks, laboriously drafted detailed maps and learned to read

the stars in the night sky. Things are much, much easier

today. For less than $100, you can get a pocket-sized gadget

that will tell you exactly where you are on Earth at any mo-

ment. As long as you have a GPS receiver and a clear view

of the sky, you'll never be lost again.

When people talk about "a GPS," they usually mean a GPS

receiver. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is actually

a constellation of 27 Earth-orbiting satellites (24 in opera-

tion and three extras in case one fails). The U.S. military

developed and implemented this satellite network as a mili-

tary navigation system, but soon opened it up to everybody

else. Each of these 3,000- to 4,000-pound solar-powered

satellites circles the globe at about 12,000 miles (19,300

km), making two complete rotations every day. The orbits

are arranged so that at any time, anywhere on Earth, there

are at least four satellites "visible" in the sky. A GPS re-

ceiver's job is to locate four or more of these satellites, fig-

ure out the distanc­e to each, and use this information to

deduce its own location. This operation is based on a simple

mathematical principle called trilateration. Trilateration in

three-dimensional space can be a little tricky, so we'll start

with an explanation of simple two-dimensional trilateration.

2-D Trilateration

Imagine you are somewhere in the

United States and you are TO-

TALLY lost -- for whatever rea-

son, you have absolutely no clue

where you are. You find a friendly

local and ask, "Where am I?" He

says, "You are 625 miles from

Boise, Idaho." This is a nice, hard

fact, but it is not particularly use-

ful by itself. You could be any-

where on a circle around Boise that has a radius of 625

miles, like this:

You ask somebody else where you are, and she says, "You

are 690 miles from Minneapolis, Minnesota." Now you're

getting somewhere. If you combine this information with the

Boise information, you have two circles that intersect. You

now know that you must be at one of these two intersection

points, if you are 625 miles from Boise and 690 miles from

Minneapolis. If a third person tells you that you are 615

miles from Tucson, Arizona,

you can eliminate one of the

possibilities, because the

third circle will only inter-

sect with one of these points.

You now know exactly

where you are -- Denver,

Colorado. This same concept

works in three-dimensional

space, as well, but you're

dealing with spheres instead

of circles.

Fundamentally, three-dimensional trilateration isn't much different from

two-dimensional trilateration, but it's a little trickier to visualize. Imag-

ine the radii from the previous examples going off in all directions. So

instead of a series of circles, you get a series of spheres. If you know

you are 10 miles from satellite A in the sky, you could be anywhere on

the surface of a huge, imaginary sphere with a 10-mile radius. If you

also know you are 15 miles from satellite B, you can overlap the first

sphere with another, larger sphere. The spheres intersect in a perfect

circle. If you know the distance to a third satellite, you get a third

sphere, which intersects with this circle at two points.

The Earth itself can act as a fourth sphere -- only one of the two possi-

ble points will actually be on the surface of the planet, so you can elimi-

nate the one in space. Receivers generally look to four or more satel-

lites, however, to improve accuracy and provide precise altitude infor-

mation. In order to make this simple calculation, then, the GPS receiver

has to know two things: The location of at least three satellites above

you and the distance between you and each of those satellites.

The GPS receiver figures both of these things out by analyzing high-

frequency, low-power radio signals from the GPS satellites. Better

units have multiple receivers, so they can pick up signals from several

Satellites simultaneously.

Radio waves are electromagnetic energy, which means they travel at the

speed of light (about 186,000 miles per second, 300,000 km per second

in a vacuum). The receiver can figure out how far the signal has trav-

eled by timing how long it took the signal to arrive. At a particular time

(let's say midnight), the satellite begins transmitting a long, digital pat-

tern called a pseudo-random code. The receiver begins running the

same digital pattern also exactly at midnight. When the satellite's signal

reaches the receiver, its transmission of the pattern will lag a bit behind

the receiver's playing of the pattern.

The length of the delay is equal to the signal's travel time. The receiver

multiplies this time by the speed of light to determine how far the signal

traveled. Assuming the signal traveled in a straight line, this is the dis-

tance from receiver to satellite. In order to make this measurement, the

receiver and satellite both need clocks that can be synchronized down to

the nanosecond. To make a satellite positioning system using only syn-

chronized clocks, you would need to have atomic clocks not only on all

the satellites, but also in the receiver itself. But atomic clocks cost

somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000, which makes them a just a

bit too expensive for everyday consumer use.

The Global Positioning System has a clever, effective solution to this

problem. Every satellite contains an expensive atomic clock, but the

receiver itself uses an ordinary quartz clock, which it constantly resets.

In a nutshell, the receiver looks at incoming signals from four or more

satellites and gauges its own inaccuracy. In other words, there is only

one value for the "current time" that the receiver can use. The correct

time value will cause all of the signals that the receiver is receiving to

align at a single point in space. That time value is the time value held by

the atomic clocks in all of the satellites. So the receiver sets its clock to

that time value, and it then has the same time value that all the atomic

clocks in all of the satellites have. The GPS receiver gets atomic clock

accuracy "for free."

When you measure the distance to four located satellites, you can draw

four spheres that all intersect at one point. Three spheres will intersect

even if your numbers are way off, but four spheres will not intersect at

one point if you've measured incorrectly. Since the receiver makes all

its distance measurements using its own built-in clock, the distances

will all be proportionally incorrect. Continued on page 5

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The receiver can easily calculate the necessary adjustment that will

cause the four spheres to intersect at one point. Based on this, it

resets its clock to be in sync with the satellite's atomic clock. The

receiver does this constantly whenever it's on, which means it is

nearly as accurate as the expensive atomic clocks in the satellites.

In order for the distance information to be of any use, the receiver

also has to know where the satellites actually are. This isn't par-

ticularly difficult because the satellites travel in very high and pre-

dictable orbits. The GPS receiver simply stores an almanac that

tells it where every satellite should be at any given time. Things

like the pull of the moon and the sun do change the satellites' or-

bits very slightly, but the Department of Defense constantly moni-

tors their exact positions and transmits any adjustments to all GPS

receivers as part of the satellites' signals.

Differential GPS

So far, we've learned how a GPS receiver calculates its position on

earth based on the information it receives from four located satel-

lites. This system works pretty well, but inaccuracies do pop up.

For one thing, this method assumes the radio signals will make

their way through the atmosphere at a consistent speed (the speed

of light). In fact, the Earth's atmosphere slows the electromagnetic

energy down somewhat, particularly as it goes through the iono-

sphere and troposphere. The delay varies depending on where you

are on Earth, which means it's difficult to accurately factor this

into the distance calculations. Problems can also occur when radio

signals bounce off large objects, such as skyscrapers, giving a re-

ceiver the impression that a satellite is farther away than it actually

is. On top of all that, satellites sometimes just send out bad alma-

nac data, misreporting their own position.

Differential GPS (DGPS) helps correct these errors. The basic

idea is to gauge GPS inaccuracy at a stationary receiver station

with a known location. Since the DGPS hardware at the station

already knows its own position, it can easily calculate its receiver's

inaccuracy. The station then broadcasts a radio signal to all DGPS-

equipped receivers in the area, providing signal correction infor-

mation for that area. In general, access to this correction informa-

tion makes DGPS receivers much more accurate than ordinary

receivers.

The most essential function of a GPS receiver is to pick up the

transmissions of at least four satellites and combine the informa-

tion in those transmissions with information in an electronic alma-

nac, all in order to figure out the receiver's position on Earth. Once

the receiver makes this calculation, it can tell you the latitude, lon-

gitude and altitude (or some similar measurement) of its current

position. To make the navigation more user-friendly, most receiv-

ers plug this raw data into map files stored in memory.

You can use maps stored in the receiver's memory, connect the

receiver to a computer that can hold more detailed maps in its

memory, or simply buy a detailed map of your area and find your

way using the receiver's latitude and longitude readouts. Some

receivers let you download detailed maps into memory or supply

detailed maps with plug-in map cartridges. A standard GPS re-

ceiver will not only place you on a map at any particular location,

but will also trace your path across a map as you move. If you

leave your receiver on, it can stay in constant communication with

GPS satellites to see how your location is changing. With this in-

formation and its built-in clock, the receiver can give you several

pieces of valuable information:

How far you've traveled (odometer)

How long you've been traveling

Your current speed (speedometer)

Your average speed

A "bread crumb" trail showing you exactly where you have

traveled on the map. The estimated time of arrival at your desti-

nation if you maintain your current speed.

Ok. No test on all this stuff. Either you get the idea how GPS

works or you don’t. Never the less, you should have walked

away with some knowledge of the basics.. Right? If not, do not

pass go and collect 200 bitcoins. Go directly to the beginning of

this article and read it again, and, this time, pay attention! We

don’t want to have a talk with your Mom about this….

*****

Oh, no! RFI getting into their cable TV again?

NARS in rewind…. November, 2006 George Carlson KC5RCC presented a program on communica-

tions from the Moon. “How did they do that?”

“I remember watching the TV as Neil Armstrong took those

first steps on the moon. The fact that they got to the moon was

remarkable enough, but how did they bring that TV signal back

1/4 million miles with portable equipment, in 1969?” George

continued with, “How did they design and test that equipment

without the use of fancy computer controlled test equipment?

They didn’t even have a MFJ-259!”

He went on to talk about how RF and Microwave measure-

ments were done well before automatic spectrum & network

analyzers were common. Surprisingly, most of these measure-

ments were done with mechanical apparatus using fairly simple

scientific principals, Many of these same techniques can be

used today using inexpensive instruments & a little RF trickery.

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Welcome, Congratulations and Condolences Welcome new members,

Kenneth Peabody KF5PJA, Bill Hielscher KG5WPH,

NARS Resource list General help:

Allen Majeski WA5REJ

281 528-0673 wa5rej@yahoo.com

Deral Kent K5WNO

281 548-7476 k5wno@juno.com

Al Manard N6VQO

281 292-3113 almanard@gmail.com

Digital modes:

Marty Fitzgerald W5MF

281 251-4301 fitz6@swball.net

VHF/UHF:

Brian Derx N5BA

281 251-4301

PC Programming & Ops:

Keith Dutson NM5G

281 516-1466 keith1@dutson.net

Building Electronics & kits:

Mark Tyler K5GQ

281 587-0256 k5gq@juno.com

Interference (Basic advice):

Terry Myers KQ5U

281 443-6042 tmyers1031@sbcglobal.net

Card checking for awards:

Bob Walworth N5ET—DXCC

281 292-2221 rwalworth@charter.net

Brian Derx N5BA—WAS, VUCC

281 894-5942

Bob Walworth N5ET—WAZ

281 292-2221 rwalworth@charter.net

NARS Public Info. Officer

Joe Sokolowski KD5KR

281 353-2196 kd5kr@arrl.net

NARS Information President & Board Chairman

Brad Nelson WD5GNI

281 370-0934

wd5gni@swbell.net

Vice President

Keith Dutson NM5G

281 516-1466

keith1@dutson.net

Treasurer

Sheree Horton KF5LMJ

281 890-4038

sher5456@gmail.com

Secretary

Martin Rogoff N5GPS

281 890-4538

N5gps.tx@gmail.com

Directors

Al Manard N6VQO

281 292-3113

almanard@gmail.com

Ron Horton KF5LFL

281 890-4038

ron.horton88gmail.com

Deral Kent K5WNO

281 548-7476

k5wno@juno.com

Mike Bowen N8ILU

mike5664g@yahoo.com

Administrative & General Info.

Joe Sokolowski KD5KR

281 353-2196

kd5kr@arrl.net

Send changes in address, phone, or email to:

NARS

P.O. Box 90387

Houston, TX 77290-0387

Nets

2 meter Wed. 8 pm. 146.660, tone 100

Coordinator: Jerry Whiting KB5VGD

g_whiting@sbcglobal.net

Web site

URL: http//www.w5nc.net

Web Master: Bill Buoy N5BIA

281 370-3510 n5bia@arrl.net

NARS Reflector

NARS@mailman.qth.net

Coordinator: Keith Dutson NM5G

281 516-1466 keith1@dutson.net

Texas QSO Party

Co-coordinator: Chuck Sanders NO5W

832 657-4832

no5w.chuck@gmail.com

Co-coordinator: Keith Dutson NM5G

281 516-1466 keith1@dutson.net

VE Session (ARRL) Manager

Keith Dutson NM5G

281 516-1466 keith1@dutson.net

Meetings

Monthly General Membership 3rd. Friday

each month (except January) at 7:30 pm.

Cypress Creek Christian Community Ctr.

6823 Cypresswood Drive

Saturday Breakfast

Denny’s 6504 FM 2920, Spring

(Just a few blocks west of Kuykendahl)

Wednesday Lunch-11 am.

Various places. Info on front page.

NARS News is published monthly by the Northwest Amateur Radio Society. Send all articles and materials for the newsletter to:

Editor, Joe Sokolowski KD5KR, 281 353-2196 kd5kr@arrl.net Deadline for articles to appear in the next newsletter is the last day of

each month.

Northwest Amateur Radio Society is a Special Services Club affiliated with the American Radio Relay League, ARRL Club No. 2120.